Should 2020 census ask Californians about their citizenship?

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 05: A voter goes to the polls for Super Tuesday primaries in the predominantly Latino neighborhood of Boyle Heights on February 5, 2008 in Los Angeles, California.

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 05: A voter goes to the polls for Super Tuesday primaries in the predominantly Latino neighborhood of Boyle Heights on February 5, 2008 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

While similar versions of the question have been asked before, the request to ask a census question about citizenship anew has come under fire in California where critics believe such a question could discourage Hispanic people and other immigrants from participating in the census for fear of prosecution, The New York Times reported. California has 7 million eligible Hispanic voters, per the Pew Research Center.

The Justice Department says that a citizenship question in the 2020 census would help enforce Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the part of federal law that makes it illegal to discriminate against voters by race and bars voter redistricting that dilutes the power of a minority group.

“To fully enforce those requirements, the Department needs a reliable calculation of the citizen voting-age population in localities where voting rights violations are alleged or suspected.”

Critics argue that including questions about citizenship could also affect how district lines are drawn, particularly those that lean Democrat. Among its biggest critics is former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder who, in a tweet, called on the U.S. Census Bureau to reject the request.

The Census Bureau is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce whose secretary, Wilbur Ross, was appointed by President Donald Trump. The decision to add the question is up to Ross. The Census Bureau currently has no director. Neither the Department of Commerce or Ross had weighed in on the reports as of Wednesday.

Over the years, except in 2010, the Census Bureau has asked people about their citizenship in a variety of ways. In 2000, it asked:

Is this person a citizen of the United States?

If the person was not born in the United States, when did he come to live in the United States?

The potential for the new census question raised alarms among civil rights groups and immigration advocates — some said an inaccurate census count could negatively impact federal resources in some of the neediest communities, others say it will make the census more expensive to conduct.

But others say such criticism is misinformed and misguided. Jeryl Bier, a writer for The Weekly Standard, said the census is “primarily for apportionment/representation.”

Sean Trende, a senior elections analyst at Real Clear Politics, said “opponents are missing the boat.” Such a question about citizenship in the census, he said, would “allow states to draw congressional district lines based on citizens, not residents.”

The request is also attracting attention because the Justice Department, under the Trump administration, has stepped up efforts to crack down on so-called sanctuary states and cities that limit cooperation between state and local authorities and U.S. immigration authorities and not help the federal government detain unauthorized immigrants. California officially became the first sanctuary state in the nation on Monday.

California’s secretary of state Alex Padilla criticized the request from the Justice Department as “conveniently” benefiting Trump and the Republican Party.

Some people on Twitter who identified themselves as former Census Bureau workers said getting information on citizenship could make it harder to get information from people.

Weigh in with your thoughts — should the U.S. Census include questions about citizenship in its upcoming count in 2020? Do you believe all residents, regardless of citizenship, should be counted? What would America look like if it didn’t count unauthorized immigrants?